The concept of the stiff upper lip stands as a cultural metaphor for the repression and figurative ‘biting back’ of traumatic experience, particularly in military contexts. For men born in the first half of the twentieth century, maintaining a stiff upper lip involved the ability to exert high levels of cognitive control over the subjective, visceral, and emotional domains of experience.
Journal of War & Culture studies, Vol. 6 No. 3, August, 2013, 239–254